Teardrops on My Guitar
by Robin Uses Wings Of Tanabi
Summary: Love is a blessing, but also a bane. Raimundo learns this the hard way when Kimiko gets a guy. SONGFIC ONESHOT! RaiKim


**After much writer's block, I came up with this Song Fiction! It's based on a true story, and I changed the words so they would fit the gender, ha. This is "Teardrops on My Guitar" by Taylor Swift, people! It's from Raimundo's point of view.**

_She looks at me; I fake a smile so she won't see_

Has anyone told you that it was impossible to be perfect? Well, here's what I say: screw them. I came face-to-face with perfection the day I laid eyes on Kimiko Tohomiko. Everything about her was perfect – her beautiful, crystal eyes of azure; her raven black hair; her soft, porcelain skin; her smile that shames stupid Sleeping Beauty.

You see, anyone can be pretty, cute, or hot even, but, to me, it takes something else to be beautiful. A pretty girl has the looks – the hair, the eyes, the smile, and all that other stuff. But it's how that girl can react to things and can still sustain a heart of gold; how a girl can take all the crap and stay standing like the world.

And that's why I think Kimiko's the most beautiful girl in the universe.

_that I want, and I'm needing everything that we should be._

She was my best female friend I've ever had. I have to laugh considering when I was joking with her, Clay came up to me once while we were both laughing at the stupidest knock-knock joke.

"Well, I reckon you're having fun with you're girlfriend!" Clay made sure to put emphasis on the word "girlfriend."

After babbling like an idiot for about five seconds, I managed to blurt out. "She's not my girlfriend! She's my friend-girl!" (A/N: Yes, that's what I told someone two years ago with another girl.)

With open eyes, Clay stared at me, and then rolled on the floor guffawing like the dunce he was.

Whatever – she was still my best female friend and that would probably not change for the space-time continuum – except if I asked her out. So many wakeful nights I lay on my mat in that cubicle of a room thinking what terrible things could happen if I related anything with love to her. What would ensue to our friendship? It might be ruined. She might never speak to me again!

Well, that wouldn't matter then. Kimiko had gotten this new boyfriend, Jake. He was new to our Xiaolin Temple – the Dragon of light, or something.

_I'll bet he's wonderful – that boy she talks about –_

_and he's got everything that I can't live without!_

You need to know that she irritated me every day with her constant blather about Jake. Trust me – it was "Jake this, Jake that. Did you know that Jake gave me a blah? Today he took me to blah-blah and blahed!"

_She talks to me; I laugh 'cause it's so damn funny_

Obviously, I had to pretend I was listening. I gave a frequent nod and put a plastic smile on, because behind that fake mask I held back the strongest flood my eyes could produce. At least she was my best friend, and she was coming to me to spend quality time with. When she was there, it seemed like all the evil in the world just dissolved before my eyes.

_that I can't even see anyone when she's with me._

After all of that, I was sure that it was going to end soon – they were rushing it! But, deep inside me, I knew that the auspicious moment would come.

"Jake said he loves me!" Kimiko squealed with a twitching head and kicking feet.

Dumbfounded, I gaped at her with an open mouth until I regained composure – somewhat, and asked with a quivering voice, "S-so, do y-you l-love him b-b-back?"

Without missing a heartbeat, she screamed, "Yes!"

Inhaling quickly and holding my breath, I opposed myself to crying, but I hugged her in congratulations.

_She says she's so in love, she's finally got it right._

_I wonder if she knows she's all I ever think about at night!_

My father, Estevez Pedrosa, always said to me that music was the banquet to the soul, and I trusted that all up to this point and probably forever. I played guitar for forever, I believe, everyday. Frankie – I mean my guitar – was my best inanimate object friend. That night, I just gripped the fingerboard and moped, gazing at the partially translucent ceiling shielding the starry dark.

_She's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar,_

_the only thing that keeps my wishing on a wishing star._

_She's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do._

I can remember like it was yesterday. It was February 16 at seven o'clock, and it broke my heart when he announced, "Everyone, would you please gather 'round? Thank you. Standing before you, I am here tonight to ask out a lovely girl named Kimiko. No, Omi, I'm not taking her outside; I'm asking her to be my girlfriend."

Kimiko looked shocked and ecstatic. In vain, I wished she would go up and slap that guy on the face, running off saying, "Raimundo is the only one for me!"

Ha, I was so unbelievably foolish to think that anything like that could possibly happen in a millennium.

To accept a place beside her new man, she gaited past me. Sniffing, I realized her delicious, mango-strawberry scent as she went up to hug him. Too bad that that scent wasn't coming to me.

_She walks by me; can she tell that I can't breathe?_

_And there she goes, so perfectly, the kind of flawless I wish I could be._

Omi came up to me, sympathetic and questioning, and asked me, "Why do you have bags under your eyes? Is that paint?" He tried to rub it off, and honestly I was too tired and miserable to do anything about it. I suffered from severe, emotional insomnia, and I knew it. It was bad for me, and I told myself to snap out of it. It wasn't worth killing myself over, but I couldn't doze into a dream even if I tried to.

I wasn't angry at Jake at all – he didn't do anything to me; he had no idea that I was completely in love with the girl he was going out with. However I couldn't say I wasn't jealous. Every time we went to go look for a Shen Gong Wu, Jake and Kimiko held hands and snuggled right in front of my face. I was about to throw up every single time it happened.

Once it actually did occur that I barfed; all I could say is that I was lucky it was on Dojo – he'd probably just mix it all up with his dropped food.

Definitely, though, he should be treating her like a gift from above, because that was what she was – for certain.

_He'd better hold her tight – give her all his love –_

_look in those beautiful eyes and know he's lucky 'cause_

_she's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar,_

_the only thing that keeps me wishing on a wishing star._

_She's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do._

Up to that point, I was able to hold in all my weeping, but once it just blew up in my face. Jack Spicer stole the Silver Manta Ray and hid overseas, and, just our luck, Dojo was suffering from a diarrheic state. On the airline that we took, I was seated next to Kimiko while Jake, Clay, and Omi were far away.

As she sat herself next to me, she smiled apologetically. "I'm sorry I've been only talking about Jake all this time."

I glanced out the window and acknowledged her statement.

"Looks like you're tired from it all," she said with a grin. I chuckled back. "How about we have a Jake-free talk, Rai? Just like old times."

I smiled for the first time in ages. "Okay."

Just as we got into our conversation, I saw a dark shadow creeping through the aisles.

"Hey, Rai. Hi Kimiko…I talked to the woman next to me and she said that you and she could switch seats. So would you want to?"

Like she was in a trance, Kimiko moaned hungrily, "Yes…"

Jake held out his hand, and Kimiko grasped it like there was no tomorrow. She turned to me with a beam matching her grasp. "Bye Raimundo!"

"Bye Kimiko," I started. "See you…"

She left before I finished.

"Later…"

_So I drive home alone as I turn off the light._

I sighed and sank into my seat. I had had it. That was the end. It was hilarious how I lived through all that and still was foolish enough to like her – to love her. Even more of a riot was how I never told her even though she was my best friend. Want to know the funniest thing in the world? It's how I was actually trying to convince myself that I didn't like her anymore.

_I'll put her picture down and maybe get some sleep tonight._

Oblivious as I thought, I was unaware that a very portly woman sat next to me. She smelled strongly of asparagus.

"Oh, hello!" the woman said. "We're going to get along great. Do you like cats?"

Before I could answer, she continued, "Oh, that is wonderful, dear! I have dozens of pictures of my cats for you to look at!"

I inhaled to speak, but she interrupted me again, "Don't worry, dear, I'll make sure to show them to you one-by-one!"

Do I need to say more?

After a while of looking at the gross cats, I found an excuse to make a trip to the bathroom in the back – a very long trip to the bathroom in the back. Trying to fumble past the woman and her bitter vegetable scent for a while, I finally managed to get into the passageway, taking my time to walk there.

Not hard to believe, I experienced the worst day of my life – how could it go even more downhill? Utterly impossible, right? Wrong. Guess who I saw in row 12 in seats A and B making out?

_She's the reason for the teardrops on my guitar,_

That's right. Kimiko and Jake were eating each other's mouths as if they were starving to death. Jake wasn't afraid to caress her stomach, either. Also, he was fingering through her raven black hair. The nerve of him just made me want to heave! They were having the biggest patterns all compressed into a kiss. I've never seen more of a monstrous make-out.

You know what the worst thing was? Kimiko looked like she liked it. But I know she didn't. I knew she loved it. She was in a heavenly paradise – a paradise that was a hell to me. I stayed rooted to the spot, mouth open, heart dejected, and dreams crushed.

_the only one who's got enough of me to break my heart._

I had no intention of going into the bathroom anymore. Racing back down the hallway and sitting in my seat, I let out all the tears I held in for months. It gushed out, drop by drop, along my face, until it reached the ending chin and dripped onto my clothing. The flight attendant asked if everything was okay, and I screamed, "Yes!" and she went away quite afraid. I was seriously about to be ready to kill.

_She's the song in the car I keep singing, don't know why I do._

Apparently, Clay saw me crying, and he being my best friend overall knew what it was about.

He's a good friend; he told me everything after the entire incident.

When the plane landed, each of us went to the carousel to go pick up our luggage. Clay, seeing Kimiko alone trying to lift her gazillion-pound luggage, went up to her and asked quite menacingly, "Are y'all blind?"

Kimiko stared at Clay foolishly, and started looking around in confusion.

Scoffing even more menacingly, he continued, "Or is y'all just stupid?"

In even more confusion, she stated, "Clay, um, if this isn't my bag, then you can just say –"

"Kimiko – Raimundo loves you."

She didn't gasp, or put her hands over her lips – she just sat there with her mouth open.

"It's not a crush, or an infatuation – it's love. He loves you, Kimiko! He loves you to the farthest possible dig-darn extent and all you jabber on about is 'Jake this, Jake that.' He loves you so much that he didn't get in the way of you and him. You were kissing on the plane. He was crying on the plane. If you look into his eyes, they are blood-red! He was crying because his heart was broken like a bulldozer over a mirror! I think he loves you more than Jake ever will."

_She's the time taken up, but there's never enough._

Anyway, that was all Clay said about the conversation, or monologue, or whatever. The important thing is that that same day Kimiko came up to me while I was sitting on a stone wall in front of the temple. Staring over the horizon, I heard the gentle footsteps behind me.

"Hi, Rai."

Silence.

"Um, I want to apologize for what happened on the plane. It's just that, well, usually I just see you as a brother, you know?"

I turned to look at her, and she dared to stare right back into my eyes.

Taking my hands, she said, "And a super, super good friend. And I hope it stays that way…you know, if we went out."

I almost jumped two feet in the air, surprised at hearing what I just did. I didn't know if it was better to be surprised or overjoyed.

"What?"

"Raimundo, I want to be with you."

"What about Jake?"

"I already broke up with him. Told him the magic wasn't there."

I wanted to smile my biggest smile and do the stupidest dance in front of everyone in the world, but I stopped short.

"Kimiko, a great man once told me that if you truly love someone, then you have give what's best for the lover."

She beamed up at me, sitting on the stone wall right beside me. "That's right. So if you really love me, then you'll let me do this."

The next second I knew, she had her arms wrapped around my neck, lips pressed gingerly against mine. It was a classic cliché, but hey! She kissed me! We were caught in the moment as I held her waist in my arms. It was quiet and romantic. It was true love – not erotic love like stupid Jake.

I started to taste her lips as she did mine.

Apricot?

No. Sweeter.

Peach?

No. Even sweeter.

I bet it was love.

Yeah, the sweetest thing of all.

_She's all that I need to fall into._

So many questions or things that I had to ask or say, but I couldn't say much at all.

We stared at each other, smiling, laughing for no real reason, as we watched the sunset together.

So this is Raimundo saying to all those heartbroken boys out there – love wins. Short and simple.

The twilight was beautifully romantic and silent, until –

"Raimundo, you've got some lipstick on your lips!"

After she kissed me, Kimiko noticed some of her orange-red on my mouth.

Guess it was apricot, huh?

_She looks at me; I fake a smile so she won't see._

**Yes, like I said, it is based on a true story. Thanks for reading! Well, you got this far, so you might as well R&R!**


End file.
